Guatemala arrests two former ministers on corruption charges

Two former top Guatemalan cabinet ministers were arrested Saturday on corruption charges stemming from their tenure in the government of jailed ex-president Otto Perez, the Central American country's attorney general said.

They are alleged to have used their positions to illegally raise money that then was spent on lavish birthday gifts for Perez.

The gifts allegedly included a $3.5 million Bell helicopter, a $260,000 boat, and a seaside home on the Pacific valued at a million dollars.

"The delivery of these luxury goods was intended to please the boss, structured very much in the manner of organized crime," Attorney General Thelma Aldana said.

She said former interior minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla and former defense minister Manuel Lopez Ambrosio were charged with money laundering and conspiracy after their arrests in Guatemala City.

Lopez Bonilla was charged with bribe-taking and fraud as well. Both men were retired military officers who were close to Perez, who was president from 2012 to 2015.

Arrest warrants also were issued for three other former ministers who are no longer in the country -- former defense minister Ulises Anzueto, former energy minister Erick Archila and communications minister Alejandro Sinibaldi, she said.

Perez's vice president, Roxana Baldetti, also was alleged to have been a recipient of the lavish birthday presents.

Perez, a retired brigadier general, resigned under pressure in 2015 and was arrested on evidence gathered by UN-backed prosecutors that he and Baldetti took part in a scheme in which import tariffs were discounted in return for bribes.

Aldana said the case against the former ministers "refers to a perverse logic used during the government of the Patriotic Party in relation to the birthdays of the then president of the republic and the vice president."

She said they raised elevated sums of money "for the purpose of acquiring luxury goods," whose high cost could not have been covered by their modest government salaries.

The money used for the purchases was laundered through shell companies, according to Aldana